I’m definitely a huge supporter of smaller developers
stepping out and taking on some daring ideas, turning them over and making some
of my favourite games. Some even go out to out-play even AAA-titles like CoD,
like Killing Floor. Don’t get me wrong though, there are plenty of indie games
that flop like a soggy flannel, but considering I can buy five games made by independent
developers over one name-brand developer’s game and the hit-miss ratio is about
the same, I see Indie games as a much better alternative, and you still get
those hidden gems. Space Hulk is not one of those gems.
I love a good turn-based strategy game. Titles such X-COM
and Civilization are some of the most well known definitions of the genre. I
also enjoy a little tabletop gameplay from time to time, and the Warhammer 40K
universe is definitely very deep in history and it offers some amazing opportunities
for rich and spectacular games on both tabletop and keyboard. The original
Space Hulk tabletop game has been around since 1989 and I have not had the privilege
of playing it, my experience with 40K is still in its infancy. This electronic iteration
of the game attempts to bring the experience of the board game, the tension between
the Blood Angels and the Genestealers, into a brutally vicious computer game.
It does so, albeit poorly. The problem with the tabletop/pc
transition is that half the fun is when you roll the dice, that black void of
chance that may raise you up to victory or shun you to the depths of some
bottomless pit. Instead, the computer spits out random numbers and you sit and
watch; watching is not fun. With half the enjoyment of the game gone, there is
nothing to fulfil that emptiness. As far as I’ve been told, it is a true copy
of the tabletop game, so I can’t credit or discount them for any of the mission
design. Though with that said, you get through them in about eight hours, which
is significantly less than it would take on the table.
So with the game already designed by Games Workshop, perhaps
the developers could focus on graphics and making it a great game to play? Perhaps
not. I understand there have been numerous patches and fixes since release that
may have addressed some of these issues that I have with the game, but let’s go
through some when I played at release. Bullet effects skewed through walls
rather than firing straight. I lost sound several times, requiring a restart.
Constant miss-clicks causing undesired actions. Not registering that a
Terminator had reached the exit. Spelling mistakes and once I had letters
missing from words, requiring a restart. Animation glitches galore, the AI was dull
and predicable and sometimes pathfinding broke, which caused the game to get
stuck. The game was full of bugs and glitches and most weren’t game breaking,
but some caused great frustration in an already tense game. Sadly, Space Hulk feels
like it almost wasn’t tested and could have still been in beta. Always test,
test and test everything in game design; many games have failed because of this
mistake.
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| Art by Tremess http://tremess.deviantart.com/ |
I can’t finish this without at least giving some credit.
There are some neat ideas they implemented, such as the suit camera that
allowed you to see from the Terminator’s perspective. The game looks very good
with the levels being very well detailed despite the design constraints, though
I found some levels a bit unnecessarily dark.
Space Hulk was a great idea, attempting to bring to life a
great concept, but it didn’t bring enough cards to the table to stand out. It
also forgot its pants.
And there aren't any Orks in it. WAAAAAAGH!
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